Jury Awards $7.5 Million to Paralyzed Rape Victim

A San Fernando Superior Court jury awarded $7.5 million in damages to a paralyzed woman who was raped and made pregnant in a North Hollywood nursing home.

The jury found Laurelwood Convalescent Hospital grossly negligent in protecting patient Andrea Nerpel, 38, who has lived at the nursing home since she suffered major brain damage in an automobile accident when she was 19.

Nerpel, who is fed through a tube in her stomach and cannot speak or communicate meaningfully, was raped in 1982. A pregnancy was discovered by her grandmother about three months later, and Nerpel was given an abortion and sterilized.

Before jury deliberations began Wednesday, Judge David M. Schacter instructed jurors that they could award damages based only on the consequences of the negligence. They could not award punitive damages against the nursing home because there was no evidence of malice, he said.

At the end of the monthlong trial, defense attorney Richard B. Castle argued that there was no evidence that Nerpel suffered from the rape, saying her medical condition was unchanged since then.

But jurors said the rape might have been an emotional trauma for Nerpel, although she was unable to express her pain. Videotape shown during the trial indicated that Nerpel is aware of her surroundings and people who come to see her, jurors said. In the videotape, Nerpel smiled when her grandmother entered the room, and her eyes followed the moving camera.

“They were never able to prove that she has no sense of feeling or that her mind is not working,” said jury foreman Michael D. Williams of Canyon Country.

Jurors agreed that Laurelwood was negligent in its duty to protect Nerpel. About six months before she was impregnated, Nerpel was moved from a room in front of a nursing station to one farther down the hall. Jurors felt that she should not have been moved because she was so helpless, Williams said.

Nine of the 12 said they believed that $7.5 million was appropriate compensation for her suffering. Several jurors said they believed that Nerpel was raped repeatedly because of the slim chance that one rape would result in a pregnancy.

Nerpel’s medical expenses are about $4,500 a month, said her attorney, Alan J. Schultz, and the award settlement will be placed in trust to pay them. Nerpel’s grandmother is her only living relative, he said, adding that he does not know who pays her medical bills.

Castle said Laurelwood’s parent company, Western Medical Enterprises, will appeal the award.

“It’s obvious that the jury in a state of emotion decided to punish Laurelwood,” Castle said. “An emotional issue can defeat justice. The only damages were to compensate Andrea for the harm that she suffered, but there is no evidence of that. Nobody knows if she knows she was raped or not.”